be closed and guarded within a few seconds,
while hundreds if not thousands of soldiers are at all times within
call. But they will not be needed.

IX.

SIGHTS IN LONDON.

LONDON, Friday, May 23, 1851.

I have been much occupied, through the last fortnight, and shall be for
some ten days more, with the Great Exhibition, in fulfillment of the
duties of a Juror therein. The number of Americans here (not exhibitors)
who can and will devote the time required for this service is so small
that none can well be excused; and the fairness evinced by the Royal
Commissioners in offering to place as many foreigners (named by the
Commissioners of their respective countries) as Britons on the several
Juries well deserves to be met in a corresponding spirit. I did not,
therefore, feel at liberty to decline the post of Juror, to which I had
been assigned before my arrival, though it involves much labor and care,
and will keep me here somewhat longer than I had intended to stay. On
the other hand, it has opened to me sources of information and
facilities for observation which I could not, in a brief visit to a land
of strangers, have otherwise hoped to enjoy. I spend each secular day at
the Exhibition--generally from 10 to 3 o'clock--and have my evenings for
other pursuits and thoughts. I propose here to jot down a few of the
notes on London I have made since the sailing of the last steamship.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

I attended Divine worship in this celebrated edifice last Sunday
morning. Situated near the Houses of Parliament, the Royal Palaces of
Buckingham and St. James, and in the most aristocratic quarter of the
city, its external appearance is less imposing than I had expected, and
what I saw of its interior did not particularly impress me. Lofty
ceilings, stained windows, and a barbaric profusion of carving, groining
and all manner of costly contrivances for absorbing money and labor,
made on me the impression of waste rather than taste, seeming to give
form and substance to the orator's simile of "the contortions of the
sibyl without her inspiration." A better acquaintance with the edifice,
or with the principles of architecture, might serve to correct this
hasty judgment; but surely Westminster Abbey ought to afford a place of
worship equal in capacity, fitness and convenience to a modern church
edifice costing $50,000, and surely it does not. I think there is no one
of the ten best churches in New York which